DAP Secretary-General Lim Guan Eng stated that Datuk Zahidi Zainul Abidin should resign from the post of Deputy Communications and Multimedia Minister immediately, as he has presented inaccurate information in Parliament twice.
Datuk Zahidi first started feeling the heat after he wrongly accused Veveonah Mosibin of being a fraud. Following this, the Deputy Minister went onto making another major blunder by misinforming the public about the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia’s (KKMM) plans to charge a service fee for purchases made on e-commerce platforms.
The Deputy Minister stated that a fee of 20 cents for online purchases under RM1,000, and an additional 20 cents for every subsequent RM1,000 will soon be charged. However, the information was claimed to be false by KKMM itself after significant backlash was received from the public.
Secretary-General Lim is as confused as we are about the contradicting statements received from both the Deputy Minister and his own ministry. Due to this, Lim voiced his concerns on Zahidi making a false statement and violating his own suggestion.
“He repeatedly provided false information, likes to blame others for covering up his own failures and bullying the complainant, even though the complainant was an 18-year-old university student,” said Lim in a statement made today (Thursday, 10th September).
“As Zahidi has lost public credibility, it is necessary for someone more competent and capable to replace him as deputy minister.”
In retaliation, Zahidi also called for Lim to resign from his party post and MP seat after citing the 59-year-old’s corruption charges. “Resign from your party as the secretary-general, step down from your parliamentarian role, and I will resign as deputy minister. Don’t act smart and call others out, while you are not right yourself,” Zahidi said.
He added, “Now, Lim Guan Eng has been charged for corruption, so he too must resign. Our practice previously has always been one where those who are charged in court for corruption must resign. So he has to resign if he truly wants to uphold integrity.”
Zahidi has apologised and expressed his desire to meet with Veveonah after wrongly stating that her act of climbing a tree to be able to sit for her online exams was just a stunt to gain popularity. The Deputy Minister previously claimed that Veveonah apparently did not even have a real examination to sit for.
Since then netizens have come to Veveonah’s defence, while the University she was studying also confirmed that she did sit for her examinations going on during that time. The Padang Besar MP from Umno later claimed to have made this false accusation after receiving such information from Kudat MP Datuk Abdul Rahim Bakri.
Furthermore, KKMM also denied the occurrence of any discussions regarding the additional charge for online purchases costing between RM200 and RM1,000 on e-commerce platforms.
